Place des Quinconces is one of the largest public squares in Europe, stretching across twelve hectares in the heart of Bordeaux.

The name comes from the pattern in which its trees were planted: the quincunx, like the five on a dice. Before the trees, before the esplanade, there was the Château Trompette, a royal fortress torn down by revolutionaries in 1789. Every stone was repurposed into schools, town halls and workers' houses. The Girondins had made a promise: this ground belonged to the people.

The square's centrepiece, the Monument aux Girondins, has its own extraordinary story. During the Nazi occupation, its bronze figures vanished. Everyone assumed they had been melted down for weapons. Decades later, they were found buried in a field near Angers, the identity of their rescuer unknown.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the square's revolutionary history, explaining how the Girondins were guillotined here and how the bronze figures were spirited away by the French Resistance.